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Underground > Comic Books >

Astonishing X-Men Year Two

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20:49 / 08.10.06

Why not simply stop now? I think this has become, after the really quite bad 'Dangerous', an excellent bit of work.

Regrettable Juvenilia

22:51 / 08.10.06

Indeed. And I'm not aware that Cassie did come back in between New X-Men and this.

23:21 / 08.10.06

You might not want to know, but I think in one of Chuck Austen's two issues of New X-Men, she was referred to as being 'loose'. Given, though, she had two bodies - one inactive - this needn't be terribly troubling.

15:26 / 09.10.06

Austen was setting it up so that (and pardon me if vomit comes up in my throat) Havok's nurse Annie's potentially mutant son Carter's imaginary friend was Nova.

Whew that was hard.

15:44 / 09.10.06

Austen has flaws as a writer.

17:27 / 09.10.06

Following the House of M event, Marvel released a one shot special - "The 198" - that profiled most of the remaining mutants (MU Handbook-style). Ernst was one of the mutants profiled, and reported to be still alive and about following the "no-more-mutants" decimation. Her "possible" connection to Cassandra Nova was clearly alluded to, but it seems like everyone at Marvel has forgotten about this.

No surprise really, it's just that Joss has repeatedly claimed to be a huge fan of GM's run. So why would he drop the ball? I hope he manages to pull off something surprising that doesn't piss on past stories like Austen and Bendis have.

Aside from this, I'm actually enjoying the series. Cassady is tops! And Wolverine has been comedy gold.

03:52 / 14.10.06

No surprise really, it's just that Joss has repeatedly claimed to be a huge fan of GM's run. So why would he drop the ball? I hope he manages to pull off something surprising that doesn't piss on past stories like Austen and Bendis have.

I hope so too. Whedon seems to have a real love and respect for the material that came before, but it's really too soon to tell how much he wants to mix it up. I blame this on the slow pace of the book. Astonishing X-men is like watching Lost if it aired once every other month.

I like Whedon's writing for the series so far, but he doesn't have as much experience in comics as he does in television and it shows. His writing lacks polish. Still I like what he's doing. In the few interviews and such I've seen with Whedon he seems a pretty humble guy. I remember reading somewhere that after he heard the criticisms of the "Dangerous" storyline he completely agreed. He talked about the pacing being wrong and some of the points he was trying to make not being played out right. I think if he's the kind of guy who can look at his work like that and learn from the mistakes, then he will only get better.

15:44 / 14.10.06

Astonishing X-men is like watching Lost if it aired once every other month.

So it's just like watching Lost.

Matthew Fluxington

16:18 / 14.10.06

Lost is on weekly through the middle of November, and then 16 straight episodes will air weekly beginning in February. So no, not at all, really.

17:59 / 14.10.06

A lot like watching Lost for the last couple of seasons, and this season has a great big break, so yeah, a bit like Lost (but not exactly the same).

rabideyemovement

20:53 / 15.10.06

Speaking of LOST's slow pace and Marvel mutants...

What the heck is up with Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk?
I read that Damon Lindelof hasn't even turned in the script for issue three yet. I was excited when it first came out a year ago, now it's kind of lukewarm.
How long would we have to wait for four more issues of this?

21:54 / 15.10.06

Really? last I heard was 'first week in November', it's pretty shocking, that lateness. Especially for something so decompressed. Makes you glad for JC's relatively speedy schedule really.

23:00 / 15.10.06

JC is definitely faster than most other quality artists.

In the official LOST magazine's latest issue, Lindelof says he'll be done writing the UHvsW series by year's end, so I guess receiving issue #3 by Nov./Dec. makes sense.

Back to AXM... any guesses as to who the new creative team will be? I mean, GM and Quitely, followed by Joss and JC are tough acts to follow.

the credible hulk

05:29 / 16.10.06

Man, I have no idea who WILL actually take it over, but Whedon mentioned his choice would be Warren Ellis. Which would be okay, I suppose.

Personally I'd like to see Brian K Vaughan write it. And there's any number of people who would be great in the art department. Romita Jr, perhaps?

15:50 / 17.10.06

Does anyone remember Ellis putting up on his website an example of why he shouldn't be allowed to write the X-Men? The "You are not special" lecture?

I'd buy a trade or four of that.

17:13 / 17.10.06

Best option I can think of: Charles Burns. How could it fail?

How could I even speculate it might happen?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

05:58 / 18.10.06

Lindelof says he'll be done writing the UHvsW series by year's end, so I guess receiving issue #3 by Nov./Dec. makes sense.

Oh, that's alright then, that means issue #3 might be published only a year late. I'm sick and tired of the big two, but especially Marvel, hiring in big names to work, like Morrison, Quitely, Millar and Lindelof and then consistently publishing late product. Hell, Marvel were doing it back in the early nineties when nonames were writing the X-Men stuff.

I'm really enjoying Y The Last Man these days and part of the reason is just that it ships on time.

10:59 / 18.10.06

Charles Burns did Black Hole? Then he must be on New X-Men/New Mutants/whatever it is called. The possibilities are limitless.

17:41 / 16.11.06

new issue out!

I guess I should wait a day for spoilers...?

19:30 / 16.11.06

DUnno about waiting for spoilers, the thing's out.

Not much to say except a number of us guessed exactly what was happening in this arc just from the final page of issue #12. Fairly obvious.

Cyclops was amusing.

Whedon ignores the whole Ernst thing entirely. I feel silly being bothered by that.

01:03 / 19.11.06

So Cassandra's consciousness is now in poor little Hisako, right?

02:55 / 19.11.06

Looks like. I predict Dr. Doom style face-hopping, with much gasping.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:00 / 19.11.06

I think it's left unclear whether Cassandra successfully made the jump into Hisako. Looking at that last panel of Cassandra's expression (or rather the expression of the psychic version of her that's, what, inside Emma's head, or inside Stuff, who knows?), it seems very much as if Emma's "go to hell" might have been aimed at her. We're not going to find out until next arc.

What I'd like explained is whether the flashback we got at the very beginning of this arc was 'real' in the sense of a physical encounter between Cassie and Emma in pre-destroyed Genosha, in which case Scott's analysis is wrong on the details if right in spirit, or whether it's a false memory that's part of Cassie's mindfuck (which would fit with the survivor's guilt complex - "you only survived because I wanted you to, as part of an evil scheme"). I suspect and hope it's the latter.

12:14 / 19.11.06

Am I the only person who found the latest issue completely incoherent?

And not in the Invisibles-weirdness sense, but in the "I can't actually tell what's going on" sense.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

15:35 / 20.11.06

I am with you Mario.

With the exception of the Conversation between Wolverine and Beast, things seemed really unclear.

Did Cassie want Kitty to shoot Emma in the head? From what Cyke said it seems so ('and this is what she brought you here to do' or some such).

Was it Cyclops internal monologue with really bad grammar on the page showing the brain?

WAS Cassie ever in Stuff, or was she in Emma all along? Where were The Cuckoos at this point to notice that Emma was all screwed up?

If the Hellfire people were all manifestations why did shooting them do anything useful besides being fun to watch.

Overall the issue made little sense and felt like a phoned in ending, which shouldn't surprise me considering some of the endings Whedon has pulled on his other projects.

01:30 / 21.11.06

Nova wanted Emma to put her (Nova's) consciousness in Kitty. But then she changed her mind and wanted 'a new fancy' ie Hisako.

Hisako's nosebleed would seem to indicate that Nova is indeed inside Hisako now.

Emma wanted Kitty to join the team so that Kitty would kill Emma (buried alive, shot in the head, all the same to her). Emma is the "she" in Scott's 'what she wants you to do'. It's a kill me/save me thingo.

I liked this. Boxes within boxes. We're fighting a baddie and then two other baddies who have no interest in the fight we're having come along and fight us as well (beats the old acts of vengeance style baddie teamups) but then the other OTHER baddies TAKE US ALL AND PUT US IN A BOX AND SHOOT US INTO SPACE.

woo!

except: boo. long wait for new story.

but: fun!

01:31 / 21.11.06

and also: X-Men in SPACE! can anyone spell Shi'ar?

cos i can't. really, i can't. I'm sure that's wrong up there.

08:26 / 21.11.06

Was it Cyclops internal monologue with really bad grammar on the page showing the brain?

Nope, that's dialogue ripped out of Morrison's New X-Men #126, from the climactic scene where Emma tricks Cassandra's bodiless form into Stuff's prison body. "What do you do?" "I've reduced you to the status of a pocket calculator."

WAS Cassie ever in Stuff, or was she in Emma all along?

Supposedly, Cassie was in Stuff. In Morrison's run, it was stated that (1) they tricked Cassie into Stuff and (2) Stuff was programmed to learn--which ended up with Ernst, who was (this is implied) reined in by and eventually built a friendship with Martha The Floating Brain. I don't think Morrison ever intended there to be a secret 'Stuff body' in the basement concurrent with an Ernst student Cassandra walking the school halls. But then Austen's fill-in came in and I don't know what the fuggabunch happened.

It's implied in this issue that Cassie implanted some sort of psychic hold over Emma the moment she was captured. Still too unclear for me, though...

Where were The Cuckoos at this point to notice that Emma was all screwed up?

They're busy being messed up by Grek Pak in the latest Phoenix:Warsong miniseries, which is also hurting my formerly-clear understanding of Morrison's New X-men run.

If the Hellfire people were all manifestations why did shooting them do anything useful besides being fun to watch.

I don't know.

Sigh. Xorn.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:30 / 21.11.06

Did Cassie want Kitty to shoot Emma in the head? From what Cyke said it seems so ('and this is what she brought you here to do' or some such).

Elijah, is English not your first language?

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:32 / 21.11.06

Or do you just make a habit of not reading words properly, and then misquoting them when you complain about how WAH WAH WAH, it din't make any SENSE?

Seriously, I wish I had that gun right now -

11:07 / 21.11.06

and also: X-Men in SPACE! can anyone spell Shi'ar?

Mercifully, I don't think that the X-offices want two Shi'ar stories running parallel. Ed Brubaker is currently half-way through a year long Shi'ar centric arc, and I don't think that they'll want another. Of course, I could be horribly wrong, as Joss Whedon's X-Men seem to exist in a continuity all of their own. How long after M-Day is this taking place? I get the feeling that every other X-Comic is months ahead, while this is still only a few days after. Of course, I shouldn't really be bothered about continuity stuff, as long as his comics are good. But at the moment..

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

13:26 / 21.11.06

Bring it on Joe, I am willing to bet I have bigger guns.

I didn't quote what he said, I was unsure what he said since I posted while away from my comic.

English is in fact my first language, but I must be some kind of high functioning autistic because this issue was unclear to me at times, so I obviously deserve to be shot.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

13:42 / 21.11.06

Also,

Thank you andrew, I didn't recognize the borrowed text from Morrison's run and am not paying attention to the Phoenix mini series.

16:58 / 21.11.06

>> Mercifully, I don't think that the X-offices want two Shi'ar stories running parallel.

it is fun that we get two X-MEEEEEN IN SPPAAAAAACE stories running simultaneously, though (even if Bru's is pretty weak, sad to say since I am a Bru supporter most of the time).

17:14 / 28.12.06

*bump* new issue out today, methinks... first of the new arc.

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